Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets

great deal more freedom and wondered why I was still treated as if I were in elementary school.
    I was so excited about my new courage that I didn’t notice Daddy’s car until I was practically upon it. Why was he home so early? Of course, my first thought was that something was wrong with Mother. I rushed into the house. Normally, I wasn’t bothered by the quiet, the stillness, but right now, it felt ominous. I hurried up the stairway, but before I could turn to go to Mother’s room, Cassie called to me. She had to have been standing there in the shadows like one of the Heavenstone ghosts, waiting for me.
    “Why is Daddy home?” I asked.
    She was standing with her back to the wall, her arms folded, and her head down. She didn’t look up until I was right upon her.
    “We had a little crisis here today, not long after you left for school, Semantha,” she said.
    “What crisis?”
    “Mother began to bleed, hemorrhage. She said she was calling on the intercom for me, but I was in the shower, and I didn’t hear her.”
    I stood waiting for more. She looked down the hallway toward Mother and Daddy’s room and then added, “I found her on the floor with a towel between her legs, a bloody towel.”
    “Oh, my God! Is she all right? What about the baby?”
    When she answered, she didn’t look at me. She looked across the hallway and spoke as if she were reciting.
    “Naturally, I helped her back to the bathroom,and then I rushed to call Daddy. He called Dr. Moffet, who was here a little before Daddy arrived. Daddy was at our store site in Lexington. We’re building one there, you know. It’s absolutely the worst time for Daddy to be so burdened.”
    “Of course, I know we’re building one there.” How curious that she would think she had to tell me that, but she did look dazed. “I know how busy he is, Cassie, but Mother … what happened then?”
    She turned back to me and quickly molded her face back into the adult face she always assumed around me.
    “Daddy arrived, and we waited for Dr. Moffet to examine Mother. He said she was all right for now, but she has to remain in bed for at least forty-eight to seventy-two hours. She isn’t to move, and he meant
move
. I have to bring her all her food, even a bedpan. Daddy wanted to hire a nurse immediately, but I talked him out of it. I can get my schoolwork sent home. It’s not a big deal.”
    “Maybe I should stay home, too, and help.”
    “Absolutely not. If you did that, it would make them both feel terrible. They would clearly see how disruptive this foolish pregnancy really is.”
    “Foolish?”
    “Of course, foolish. What else can we call it, Semantha? She is simply too old, and her body is reminding her of it. I don’t understand what possessed them to decide to do this.”
    “But Dr. Moffet said it was all right, and you said Daddy … the Heavenstones needed a boy, needed someone to manage it all after Daddy retires.”

    “Yes, but,” she added, looking toward Mother and Daddy’s bedroom, “not with Mother now.”
    “What? What does that mean?”
    She looked at me as if she’d just realized I had been standing there listening to her.
    “Nothing. Except it means we’re all in a crisis now for months and months, so don’t cause anyone any more trouble or worry,” she told me, then turned and started for the stairway.
    “What trouble have I caused?”
    “Do your homework,” she muttered instead of answering, and descended the stairway.
    I watched her for a moment and then went to Mother and Daddy’s bedroom. I knocked on the open door and entered. Daddy was seated right beside the bed, holding Mother’s hand. She was lying back on her pillow, her hair down, her eyes closed, and a cool cloth compress on her forehead.
    “Oh, hi, Semantha. Come in, come in.”
    Mother opened her eyes and reached out for me. I hurried to take her hand.
    “What happened?”
    “A little incident,” she said. “I’ll be fine. I didn’t lose the baby,” she added.
    “Just lucky Cassie was home,” Daddy said. “Your mother wanted her to go to school and not bother,” he added, giving her a look of chastisement.
    “I could have stayed home, too,” I said.
    “There’s no need for both of you to do that,” Daddy said. “Cassie’s quite capable of handling it all.” He smiled. “So. Is there a lot of excitement about the basketball game Friday?”

    “Very much. No one’s talking about anything else.”
    “These are your best years,